drm

UltraViolet: DRM by any other name still stinks

Wal-Mart this week ushered in a high-profile outing of Hollywood's UltraViolet scheme for digital streaming of movies and TV. And it's the same old song it ever was: complicated, restrictive DRM with a big side helping of "pay me again."

In theory, UltraViolet gives you an easier--or at least, legal--way to digitally stream your movies to multiple devices. The UV standard, developed by the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, offers dizzying promises of an easy-to-access digital library, "total freedom" to view your UV-enabled movies on any device, and future-proof DVD buying where every disc includes … Read more

I regret selling my DVDs

I used to have hundreds of DVDs. They lined an entire bookshelf. I knew I never watched many of them; besides, the future was digital, wasn't it? It was 2006. My iPod Video told me so.

I sold about half my discs to the departed Kim's Video up the street, and then--pressured a bit by my family needs and small apartment--I did the unthinkable: I tossed out the remaining boxes and stuffed the discs in a binder.

It felt like sacrilege for my treasured and somewhat hard-to-find discs--my Canadian version of Cronenberg's "eXistenZ" with a commentary track, my various out-of-print Criterion movies. I gambled that I'd never really play these discs many more times, what with Netflix instant streaming and iTunes movie rentals.

Mostly, I was right. Then came "Kiki's Delivery Service."… Read more

Has Apple's iBooks Fair Play DRM been cracked?

When users purchase digital books through the iBookstore for their iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch, those files are only able to be played on iOS devices. That's because everything sold through the iBookstore has Apple's Fair Play digital rights management (DRM) software protecting it.

Now it appears, much to the chagrin of e-authors and digital book publishers, Apple's DRM has been cracked. The news comes from a forum post on MobileRead by user pdurrant:

"It is now possible to remove the DRM from epub ebooks bought in Apple's iBooks store. 'Brahms' has recently released a … Read more

Standards leader blasts HTML5 video copy protection

Microsoft, Google, and Netflix have proposed a standard for copy-protected Web video, but HTML editor Ian Hickson has dealt it a serious blow by calling it impractical and "unethical."

"I believe this proposal is unethical and that we should not pursue it," Hickson said in a mailing list message this week. "The proposal...does not provide robust content protection, so it would not address this use case even if it wasn't unethical," he added.

The Web video DRM debate--and this one isn't the first--shows the difficulties of reconciling open standards with the … Read more

A new DRM-free experiment: 'Diesel Sweeties'

Rock band Nine Inch Nails tried it. Comedian Louis C.K. tried it. Now Web comic "Diesel Sweeties" is trying it: DRM-free content.

Starting last week, cartoonist Richard Stevens III released a free PDF of "Pocket Sweeties," his first book from the comic, on the occasion of his 35th birthday. The result is a PDF that's not locked within the digital rights management wrapper that constrains the typical e-book.

The 2003 book features some of the comic strips' earliest episodes, mixing up the themes of robots and romance and rendered with Stevens' carefully constructed coarsely … Read more

A more secure SD for HD content

Panasonic, Samsung, SanDisk, Sony, and Toshiba today announced an agreement to develop new content-protection technology for SD cards and embedded flash.

Dubbed "Next Generation Secure Memory Initiative," the press release claims the as-yet undeveloped technology will be based around public key encryption. Based on the release's limited information, it sounds like it will create unique IDs that will tie a variety of fixed and mobile CE devices to you, making content producers less nervous about allowing you to download--rather than just stream--DRM'd content to devices they currently can't control, like phones and tablets. … Read more

Wake up, media moguls: Louis C.K. no-DRM video makes $200K

Louis Szekely, the comedian better known as Louis C.K., has declared that his experiment selling an online video with no copy-protection restrictions is a success.

In the four days after putting "Louis C.K. Live at the Beacon Theater" for sale at $5, the stand-up comedian has made a profit of about $200,000 so far, he said in a statement yesterday. As a result, he said, he hopes all his future work will be distributed the same way.

Today's online entertainment world is a largely bipolar. On the one hand is legally sanctioned content that'… Read more

Comedian Louis C.K. shuns advice--and DRM--for new video

Louis Szekely, a bold, vulgar, and hilarious comedian better known as Louis C.K., released a new $5 video over the weekend that's totally free of DRM copy-protection restrictions.

The move is one piece of smart marketing, at least for somebody who's got good name recognition. Another smart piece is an IAmA interview on Reddit with Louis C.K. where his message--buy the video and forget the corporate nonsense--is most likely to resonate.

The video, "Louis C.K. Live at the Beacon Theater," is available worldwide for those who pay five bucks through PayPal, and there'… Read more

Gameloft simplifies Android game re-downloads

Migrating from one cell phone to another is often frustrating, especially if you have to reload a heap of music, contacts, and app purchases.

It was even more of a frustration on an Android phone if you owned a title by Gameloft. If you had purchased a Gameloft game in the past and wanted to load it on a new device, you would have had to either back it up on an SD card, or call to customer service. And we all love to talk to customer service, especially when you can just automatically redownload apps on iOS devices without a fuss.

Droid Gamers got a tip that Gameloft has shifted that stance in its DRM policy, which was hindering Android gamers from having complete control over their purchases. Now you can freely re-download Gameloft games from its Web site without having to worry about fidgeting with cards or making phone calls.

Unfortunately, due to the shift, any old .apk files that were saved as a back-up will not work anymore, according to the Droid Gamers report posted Monday. It's possible invalidating those files could be an unexpected burden on anyone who's not aware of this news.

CNET contacted Gameloft and was unable to get an official confirmation regarding this change.… Read more

Adobe Pass to push multidevice video rights

Adobe Systems today announced a service it hopes will give TV companies a way to let people watch their video where they want--for example, cable TV subscribers who'd like to see a show on their computer, tablet, or mobile phone.

Such sharing has been difficult because of rights management issues: those who create premium video content are leery of seeing it spread willy-nilly, and supporting a multitude of devices is complex and expensive.

The Adobe Pass service--key to an "industry movement known as TV Everywhere," Adobe says--is designed to smooth over these issues using a combination … Read more